Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
Widely regarded as the first science fiction novel.
Book Entry · Science Fiction
What is Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas about?
Hunting a supposed sea monster, Professor Aronnax, his servant Conseil and the harpooner Ned Land are taken aboard the Nautilus, the miraculous submarine of the brooding Captain Nemo — scientist, exile and avenger waging private war on imperial navies. What follows is a global submarine odyssey through coral graveyards, Antarctic ice and the ruins of Atlantis, with Nemo himself as Verne's most haunting creation: technology's promise and its capacity for vengeance in one man. The novel is part travelogue, part character study, wholly definitive.
Why it matters
Verne's masterpiece and home of his greatest character. Nemo and the Nautilus shaped a century of fictional submariners and gave Disney one of its best live-action films (1954).
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